With that, the camera cut to her encircled by the gear she uses in her one-woman show. Barefoot on a white rug, she began building the vocal and instrumental parts that comprise "Birds Fly Away," a track from her 2008 Basin Street Records release "Hummingbird, Go!"

The song samples the beat from New Orleans drummer Smokey Johnson's "I Can't Help It." A copy of Johnson's LP jacket was propped against the stool atop which a turntable spun the album. Using her feet to work digital samplers, she recorded her own shouts, harmonies and handclaps, then played them back as she added acoustic guitar, the plucked strings of a violin, and tambourine.

"The Conan experience was just that -- an experience," Andersson said the following afternoon. "I had plenty of soundcheck time, so when the time came to perform I wasn't really nervous, just excited. The audience was really rockin'. I have a klick-track going in my ears at the beginning of the song to lock in time, and the enthusiastic claps from the audience almost pulled me out. But it all worked out.

"Because I move around so much, I was OK in the frigid room -- everyone wears heavy sweaters or jackets in there."

Her one-woman-band translated smartly to the small screen. At the song's conclusion, O'Brien bounded over and declared, "That was fantastic!"

He repeated the compliment after a commercial break, as Andersson sat next to him at his desk while he thanked the evening's other guests.

As the credits rolled, "Conan asked how we're doing in New Orleans, and I told him everyone's watching," Andersson said. "He was very sweet to invite me to the couch. I always wondered what was said between host and guest at that point, and now I know."